Kick out Baghdatis, say Turkish Cypriots

[Paleo]

January 18, 2008
MELBOURNE'S Turkish Cypriot community has called for Greek Cypriot tennis player Marcos Baghdatis to be expelled from Australia after he was caught on camera chanting anti-Turkish slogans.

Turkish Cypriots were furious Baghdatis had provoked their community, Australian Turkish Cypriot Cultural and Welfare Association president Hakki Suleyman said today.

"I have had a lot of calls from upset members stunned about this racist attack by a high-profile sportsman that breaches the racial vilification Act," he said.

"This is a straight-forward provocation of our community and he is playing a different game to sport, he is not being a sportsman and should apologise."

A 10-month-old video surfaced on video-sharing website YouTube of Baghdatis at a barbecue in Melbourne last year with members of the Hellas Fan Club holding a flare and chanting "Turks Out."

The video has now been removed by the user.

Baghdatis, in Melbourne for the Australian Open Tennis Championships, is set to play Australian Lleyton Hewitt in one of the show case matches in the third round tomorrow.

Baghdatis today did not back away from his comments.

"There has been a lot of coverage of me appearing in a video on YouTube.com.,'' Baghdatis said in a statement issued by tournament organisers.

"In that video from 2007 I was supporting the interest of my country, Cyprus, while protesting against a situation that is not recognised by the United Nations.

"Now I would like to concentrate on the tournament and ask everyone to respect that.''

Three members of the Hellas Fan Club - an organisation which supports Greek sportsmen in Australia - were arrested and banned from the Open following a confrontation with police on Tuesday night.

Mr Suleyman said his association would write letters to Tennis Australia, the State Government and other organisations calling for Baghdatis to be expelled from the Australian Open and the country for abusing his position.

Turkey invaded and occupied a third of Greek-controlled Cyprus in 1974.

Suat Yilmaz, secretary of the Australian Turkish Cultural Association believed members of his community will ignore Baghdatis' behaviour.

"I don't think there will be a bad reaction from our community - people will ignore him," Mr Yilmaz said.

"But in any community there are stupid people. Baghdatis should not mix sport with politics."

Mr Yilmaz said he he had seen Turkish fans with a Cyprus background at the tennis supporting Baghdatis.

"That's normal - he is a young man from the Mediterranean and we support them."

Tennis officials are meeting to decide how to respond to the matter.

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is meeting Baghdatis' management to discuss the issue.

Tennis Australia is yet to decide whether it will make a comment on the reports.

A spokesman for a leading Greek community group in Melbourne said the comments on the YouTube footage were not racist and it was not even clear whether Baghdatis was making them.

Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria director Bill Papastergiadis said Baghdatis was joining the group in singing the Greek national anthem, before someone unidentified began to call "Turks out of Cyprus".

"But you don't see him say that because his arm is in front of his mouth then and you can't hear him say it," Mr Papastergiadis said.

"You don't know whether he's saying it."

He also said the call for Turks to leave Cyprus was in line with a United Nations resolution.

"It's not exactly expressing a view which doesn't conform with the UN resolution or with the general global view of that incident," Mr Papastergiadis said.

He said the comments were not racial vilification and it was "mischievous" of the media to now make a story out of the old footage.


Here's a link to the article which also has the video feed


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[Prokomenos]

Its funny that they say kick him out meanwhile the turks are in Cyprus illegaly..

[Napalm]

What hypocrisy you would expect. Australians supposedly fighting the war on "terror" yet the mother of all muslim terrorists, the Turks, still occupy North Cyprus.

[Mr. Verenidou]

Baghdatis (what a surname,ahha): "Now I would like to concentrate on the tournament and ask everyone to respect that.''

a person, and a sportsman, asks for respect though he disrespects others?! what a chaotic soul he has - before he had joined tournamenst, he should have seen a pyschiatrist
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Cypriot Turks in Australia will ignore him. he must be ashamed of acting against the spirit of sports. He is not there to defend Greek Cypriot political rights but join the tournament. I don't know - a Turkish basketball player, Kutluay, plays in Greek basketball team. What do you guys do? Go there and throw rotten tomatoes and eggs over him? I learned a lot about Greeks here. I must be careful the next time i go to Greece.

[Ellinas]

First of all, his name is Pagdatis. I don't know why the Western media are always referring to him as Baghdatis. If he had such a name I guess he would have been bombed by the Americans
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.

Secondly I can't see which is his racist behavior. They want to keep him out because he singed the Hellenic National Anthem and he said that the Turkish army which occupies the 1/3 of Cyprus illegally must leave? Pitiful. But it is not fault of the Turkish Cypriots. It is fault of the media who takes them seriously and promote their claims.

[Chris]

I salute Baggy!

I would have done the same thing, here in London there is a rally once a year to go through London and to shout:

'Turks out of Cyprus'

And a load of other things, I went.

They want to throw him out because of what? He is allowed freedom of speech isn't he!

GOOOO ONNN BAGGY!!!!!!

[gmellos]

Originally Posted by Chris
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I salute Baggy!

I would have done the same thing, here in London there is a rally once a year to go through London and to shout:

'Turks out of Cyprus'

And a load of other things, I went.

They want to throw him out because of what? He is allowed freedom of speech isn't he!

GOOOO ONNN BAGGY!!!!!!

I agree it's nice to know we have a Hellene (a Cypriot one) who has some balls!!!

Turkey must leave Cyprus NOW!!! Any Turk who came over must decide either leave or renounce their Turkish citizenships and become Turkish Cypriots!!! Those are the ONLY turks who have a right to live in Cyprus IMO!!!!

[Behelit]

Originally Posted by Ellinas
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It is fault of the media who takes them seriously and promote their claims.

Of the jewishowned media you mean :)

[Angelo]

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I dont see why their making a big deal,the video was made 1 year ago.I guess the Australians media try and put Baghdatis off his game

against the only Aussie left in the Open

Video of Baghdatis

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[Napalm]

I noticed skops couldn't resisted planting their tito communist propaghanda in the comments section below the article. I put some responses to those guys myself.